Results 1 to 7 of 7
  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2020
    Location
    Western NC

    Memorial Day memories

    Monday is Memorial Day, and I thought it might be interesting for people to share memories of those friends and loved ones who served our country. I'll start off with a picture of my father (class of 1929), taken I think, sometime in early 1945, possibly after VE day judging by how relaxed he looks.

    Dad at Pisa.jpg

    I was unaware of this photograph until last summer when I found it among some of his papers. I never knew much about his service as, typical of his generation, he didn't talk much about his experiences in WWII. All I know is that he served throughout North Africa and Italy.

    However, he is the one who is responsible for my avatar, as he had season tickets for over 20 years, both in football and basketball. We sat together in section 15 both before and during many of the Bubas years, and I was privileged to see some of the most memorable games of that era with him.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Summerville ,S.C.
    My father was a ranger .I have a awesome picture of him hanging by one arm as a huey
    Lifts him out of a valley . I'm just not sure I want to dig through that box of memories. Isn't anything I want to share with my family it's something I need to do on my own .

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Section 15 View Post
    Monday is Memorial Day, and I thought it might be interesting for people to share memories of those friends and loved ones who served our country. I'll start off with a picture of my father (class of 1929), taken I think, sometime in early 1945, possibly after VE day judging by how relaxed he looks.

    Dad at Pisa.jpg

    I was unaware of this photograph until last summer when I found it among some of his papers. I never knew much about his service as, typical of his generation, he didn't talk much about his experiences in WWII. All I know is that he served throughout North Africa and Italy.

    However, he is the one who is responsible for my avatar, as he had season tickets for over 20 years, both in football and basketball. We sat together in section 15 both before and during many of the Bubas years, and I was privileged to see some of the most memorable games of that era with him.
    Amazing picture. Thanks for sharing.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Cincinnati, Ohio
    It was only five or six years ago that I discovered the surprising coincidence related to my father's military service. He was a US Navy pilot, and he died in a low-level bombing training exercise when I was just seven years old, so we never got the chance to share this. I saw the connection when I was going through his service records and came across the following detail. It was pretty startling.

    In October 1944 he was aboard the USS Manila Bay (CVE-61) in the Leyte Gulf. For any of you who have read histories of the Pacific War, you're likely familiar with the belief that were it not for the heroic, and suicidal, action of two Navy destroyers, the Johnston and the Samuel B. Roberts, the crew of the Manila Bay and many other members of the military might not have survived that day. MacArthur's "return" could have played out very differently if not for the action of those two ships.

    So, jump forward twenty-four years when I get the assignment for my first NROTC cruise, and I end up aboard... the Samuel B. Roberts. Of course, I was on the second Roberts DD-823. It was commissioned after the first one DE-413 was sunk in the Leyte Gulf. But I think it's safe to say that without the sacrifice of the first Roberts in 1944, I probably wouldn't have been around to board the second Roberts in 1986.

    It would have been pretty special to share this with him.

    Glen_Sue.jpg

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Ggallagher View Post
    It was only five or six years ago that I discovered the surprising coincidence related to my father's military service. He was a US Navy pilot, and he died in a low-level bombing training exercise when I was just seven years old, so we never got the chance to share this. I saw the connection when I was going through his service records and came across the following detail. It was pretty startling.

    In October 1944 he was aboard the USS Manila Bay (CVE-61) in the Leyte Gulf. For any of you who have read histories of the Pacific War, you're likely familiar with the belief that were it not for the heroic, and suicidal, action of two Navy destroyers, the Johnston and the Samuel B. Roberts, the crew of the Manila Bay and many other members of the military might not have survived that day. MacArthur's "return" could have played out very differently if not for the action of those two ships.

    So, jump forward twenty-four years when I get the assignment for my first NROTC cruise, and I end up aboard... the Samuel B. Roberts. Of course, I was on the second Roberts DD-823. It was commissioned after the first one DE-413 was sunk in the Leyte Gulf. But I think it's safe to say that without the sacrifice of the first Roberts in 1944, I probably wouldn't have been around to board the second Roberts in 1986.

    It would have been pretty special to share this with him.

    Glen_Sue.jpg
    Another great share. Thank you.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Cincinnati, Ohio
    Quote Originally Posted by ClemmonsDevil View Post
    Another great share. Thank you.
    Thanks, and I just noticed the typo in my post. I served on the Roberts in 1968, not 1986.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Rougemont Nebulae
    I usually use threads like this to honor the same two men:
    My wife’s Dad who survived the Bataan Death March and 3+ years in a Japanese prison camp and my Great Grandfather who fought with the 157th NY Volunteers mustered out of Courtland, NY and was wounded on July 1st 1863, day 1, Gettysburg by a Confederate mini-ball, a device with a comical and misleading name as it can take a limb off.

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